The Surprisingly Strong Case for Luck in Sales

Studies show sales teams can harness luck to increase revenue.

My wife and I started our first business together in 2003. We sold solar panels in Long Island, New York, which meant making thousands of in-home sales calls.

Before we entered a potential customer’s home, we had a little ritual. We always looked at each other before we opened our car doors and said, “Let’s go sell a solar system.” It was cheesy and a bit silly, but somehow, we had to say it, or we thought we’d be jinxed and lose the sale.

Though we didn’t know it then, we had tapped into one of several practices that research has shown salespeople can use to close more deals. It turns out there’s a science to superstition, and whether the supernatural exists or not doesn’t really matter. At the end of the day, there are practices anyone can use to increase their business’s good fortune.

The intersection of luck and sales success isn’t just anecdotal. It’s backed by rigorous research. After a decade-long study, psychologist Richard Wiseman concluded that some people truly can engineer luck. Dr. Tina Seelig at Stanford University developed a systematic approach to increasing good fortune in business ventures. Joël Le Bon, professor at Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School, has extensively researched how luck affects sales.

Their research shows that luck exists and can sharpen salespeople’s competitive edge. Here’s how:

How Salespeople Make Their Luck

All three experts have discovered that luck comes only after effort.

In his research, Le Bon calls this “provoked luck”: “unexpected events that come about because their strategic behavior has maximized the opportunities.” Their “strategic behavior” could include sales activities such as making phone calls, taking meetings, qualifying, and gathering intelligence on prospects. His interviews with experienced salespeople and a study of sales students revealed that provoked luck played a huge role in their success.

Le Bon’s study of 250 university sales students produced striking results. Out of the total sales generated by all students, approximately 60% came from lucky circumstances. Of those lucky sales…